Daisies
by x stickers
Summary: "What's your name?" He asked, wearily. "Skye." No. That's not right. Grant could feel it like an ache in his bones. Burning. "What's your real name?" Agent Ward snapped. The young 'hacktivist' narrowed her eyes at him, glaring daggers. However, there was no hiding the confusion on her face from his question. Still, he felt it on the tip of his tongue. Daisy. (SOULMATES!Verse)
1. Chapter 1

Grant's soulmark formed on his wrist when he was twelve years old.

He thought it was beautiful.

 _Daisy_.

It was a gentle reminder he would wake up to every morning, before being forced to face the terrors of his _family_.

He didn't have it for very long.

Christian locked him in his room the night after his thirteenth birthday party. Grant was in agony for hours; the eldest Ward held a hot iron to his forearm right where the five letters faintly painted his skin a light purple. A fat, angry, red welt scarred the name.

 _Daisy_.

It was ugly and blotchy, and Mrs. Ward scolded her eldest son, ' _You know better than to leave marks that can be noticed in the photographs, Maynard,'_ and, _'Why must you pick on your brother? Do I need to schedule more piano lessons to keep you busy?'_

His mother nearly beat him to submission the moment she sent Christian away.

 _'Why do you let him treat you like that, huh?'_ She hissed as she shoved a young, scared Grant against the wall. ' _You_ let _him beat you up, didn't you? This is your way of trying to cry out for help,_ isn't it?'

Mrs. Ward snatched her sniffling son's left wrist, yanking it up so she could see the damage that Christian had done with her hot iron.

' _How are you going to explain this to the media, Grant?'_

His mother asked through gritted teeth, and Grant felt an overwhelming wave of rage rush through him. How would he explain it, to anyone? Why his older brother beat him and his younger brother? Why his father beat his mother? Why their mother did nothing to protect anyone, not even herself?

He couldn't explain. Because no one would believe him, not with the perfect Ward's family image.

 _'Now you're going to have to tell the reporters that you hurt yourself.'_ She rubbed her thumb over the fresh wound, pressing down on it and causing her son to cry out in pain.

 _'Daisy_..' His mother scoffed as she read the burned script, throwing Grant's arm back to him. ' _First is Christian with his 'Belle', and now you're popping up with Daisy's? Ridiculous_.'

Mrs. Ward left, ushering her youngest child, Rosie who had been listening from the other side of the door, down the hall.

Thirteen years old, Grant laid in his bed with his back to the door. The moon was spilling into his room, and his thumb traced over the welt on his wrist.

Daisy.

He closed his eyes and tried to imagine her.

 _Warmth. Everything his family was not. Genuine smiles. Open arms. A gentle voice that would sooth his nerves.  
_

 _Daisy._

Just imagining her helped him feel less alone.

* * *

...

Skye was born without a soulmark.

Girls usually get their marks at a younger age then men, maybe a year before one started their puberty. And of course, puberty hit Skye, _hard_ , right when she was nine years old.

 _(By the time she was ten, she was a C-cup. The nuns at the orphanage just_ loved _that.)_

It was hard growing up alone. No parents, no siblings. No name. No soulmate.

She remembered asking Sister Leanne what it meant to have no soulmark, but the sister just patted _Mary Sue Poots_ hair down in a forcefully lovingly gesture, before giving some generic response that Skye had already read in a dozen of books,

 _"I'm sorry dear. But sometimes it just_ happens _. They say 1 in 1000 are born without the markings, but there are tons of articles all over the news about couples who've still managed to find eachother-"_

She knew this. _Of course_ she already knew this. Skye had been following those articles like they were real life fairy tail's since she was twelve years old. But none of the nuns, or the articles, or the news reports, or the teachers were able to tell her _why_.

Skye would thumb at the curved line on her wrist self-consciously when she listened to each lecture. Why did she have a mark on her wrist, if it's not a soulmark? A long, curved line, as if someone began to sign her destiny and then gave up midway through. She never heard of this happening, not in _anything_ she's ever read.

Either your mark forms, or it doesn't. There was no _in between_.

In between.

That's how she felt, most days.

Some nights, Skye would trace the curved line on her wrist. It reminded her of a fishing hook, or maybe a crescent moon. She liked to imagine destiny was going to pair her off with someone who began with a 'C' before it changed its mind.

Just like how she almost had a family once, but they changed their mind too.

 _(She was twelve when the Brodys decided they didn't like Mary Sue Poots. She was fourteen when she erased all files of Mary Sue, adopted her new identity, Skye, and ran away from the orphanage.)_

She often wondered if there was anyone out there looking for her. Her parents? Her soulmate?

Her biggest fear was that she would never know who they were if the time came.

* * *

...

Grant was fifteen years old when he ran away from military camp and set his house on fire. He was just a teenager when he was sent to prison, and his brother was convincing them to try him as an adult.

He was fifteen years old when his savior, John Garrett, rescued him from the hell he was tangled in. Garrett made it clear when he broke Ward out of juvie,

' _Now son, if you're going to be rolling with me, you are to leave everything else behind._ Everything _. You only listen to my orders now. You do what I tell you. And you don't question me, because I know what I'm doing. I got you out of that mess, didn't I_?'

Garrett found the giant welt that scarred Grant's soulmark to be amusing.

He convinced Grant to finish the job when he recollected him from the woods after abandoning him for six months.

' _You'd be doing yourself and the sweet gal a favor,' he told him,_ and _'You got more important things to think about then Daisies and soulmates, son.'_

Garret was right.

Grant was sixteen years old when he carved her name from his flesh, cutting out the only thing that gave him comfort when he laid in bed after a day in hell. The brand that he adored, even after his brother tried to scar it. How comforting it used to be to remove his black band that his the mark, and trace his fingers against the curvy letters, marred by an angry welt.

 _Daisy_.

When he was finished, the brand was illegible. Just an ugly scar, a reminder of how weak he'd once been to take comfort is such a trivial thing.

But things were different now, John was going to help make him stronger.

 _(The blank scar made things easier._

 _Plus, he sure as hell didn't see any Daisy's down the road that he was heading.)_

* * *

...

Skye wasn't going to let her deformed soulmark keep her from ruining her dating life. She'd share the story, _'Yeah, I looked everywhere, and I have_ never _heard of a soulmark not properly forming before!'_ And usually her audience is impressed. Most of the time, they pity her.

And that's not the reaction Skye would be going for, so she would chug the rest of her drink and end the date abruptly with a trip to the bathroom.

It was hard to find someone who didn't care about the soulmark's. It was a controversial topic, some believed in destiny being right, some don't.

Many people covered their brands.

It was private, your soulmates name. But it was natural, and it was something that everyone (except 1 out of 1000, apparently) are born with.

Skye always felt she connected more with those who were born without.

When she was fifteen, she was homeless, squatting in vacant houses with a sleeping bag and a thermal of hot chocolate. Still, she had a (irregularly) steady income, but raking in $100 on a good week was a lot when you didn't have any bills to pay.

Plus, she enjoyed the jobs she was offered; web designing (ghost designer for MyBook) and hacking into cheating boyfriends profiles and/or phones on occasion (hey, she wasn't proud of it! But when you're fifteen and homeless and starving, and someone waves a fifty under your nose just to unlock her boyfriend's iPhone... you don't look a gifted horse, right?)

Of course, with that much power, and after practicing no restraint, she was bound to crash and burn.

She was sixteen when she dropped out of high school. Nineteen when she met Miles Lydon.

(He didn't have a soulmark either. Oh, but he did have tattoos. Ink upon ink upon ink, sleeved from his shoulder to his wrist, and Skye was enchanted.)

By twenty, Skye learned how to hack into the government's database without alerting any flags.

Skye started living in her van when she was twenty one. That was around the same time when Miles introduced Skye to an online group of amateur hackers, the Rising Tide.

When Skye was twenty two, the Rising Tide was becoming more and more popular by the day, and finally for the first time in her life, she felt like she was doing something _right_. She spent all day and night blogging, an active member of the Rising Tide, leaking files signed by government officials when they lied about something on the news to cover another something up.

The people needed answers. They didn't deserve to be left in the dark.

So she shed a little bit of light with each picture and video post.

(' _They have access to your phones_!' Skye ranted in one video. ' _Download my firewall app in your e-store for .25 cents,_ _so you can be sure you're using your phones safely!'_ )

Things were going great, but it wasn't unnoticed by Skye how her obsession with the truth was ironic coming from a girl with no name, no family, and the bruisings of a soulmark yet not soulmark.

But she was happy now, with Miles who was just as screwed up as she was, but he was in love with her and it felt so good to be wanted. But then when she was twenty two, he admitted to being branded underneath all of the ink. Her name was Sarah Lynne.

(Skye was young, she was hurt, and so she ran away in the middle of the night without a word. There was nothing more embarrassing then knowing your boyfriend was destined to leave you for some girl named Sarah Lynne. Plus, Skye was never real good with confrontation anyways. Not when it came to herself. Not when she was still confused on how she was supposed to feel.

..She texted him a short, simple apology the next morning. She hasn't heard from him all year.)

When she was twenty three, Skye finally slipped, and she popped up on Shield's radar.

"How will you come at us? From the air? From the ground?" Skye frowned as she folded her hands together, leaning forward so the mic on her computer could catch her voice clearly.

"How will you silence us this time? How can you? The truth is in the wind. It's everywhere. You _cannot stop,_ the _Rising Tide_. You will not find us, you will not ID our faces. But rest assured, we will rise against those who shield us from the truth, and nothing, _nothing_ , can stop us in the-!"

Her van door swung open.

 _'Okay.. that's definitely not Billie the Toeless guy again..'_

It was two men in black suits. Skye sucked her bottom lip, nervous, before giving them both a smile.

"Mmm... Hey? 'sup?"

Grant threw a black bag over the internet terrorists head.

Agent Ward has always completed the orders he's given without flaw. On occassion, one set of orders may be more important than another set.

In this case, Grant had no idea what Coulson was planning when they tracked down a Rising Tide member.

Garrett said nothing about this.

Then again, Garrett was also unaware that _Melinda freaking May_ was 'just the pilot' on Coulson's team. There were just little details that they missed, but Grant wouldn't be the specialist that he is if he didn't know how to adapt. So Ward was making his own calls, and he decided he didn't want to take the risk with a Rising Tide member seeing the Bus.

But judging by the disapproving look on his current supervisor's face (Did he disapprove? It was incredibly hard to read Coulson's face, which always threw Grant off) throwing a bag over the subjects head like a hostage was over-doing it by just a bit.

But that was too bad.

Grant had bad experiences with the Rising Tide cronies, and he couldn't help how he ripped the bag off of her head once they were on the Bus and safely in the holding cell. He tugged on her arm when she let out a frightened squeak, and pushed her into the chair.

She had brown eyes, and they were burning at him. "You're making a big mistake."

She was full of fire, yet she was just all talk, and that rubbed the Agent the wrong way. "You don't look that big." Grant retorted dryly, taking off his sunglasses so he could meet her gaze. She frowned as she looked at him, before her gaze flicked to Coulson.

Grant watched as she tuck brown strands of hair out of her face, trying her best to appear unfrazzled. He had to look away before she met his gaze once again, and she looked _so soft_. And he needed to keep his head in the right place.

"Sorry for the lack of finesse." Coulson said as he shut the cell room's door. "Agent Ward here has had a little history with your group. The Rising Tide."

Ward pressed his lips together in an attempt to refrain from frowning. He wasn't sure what Coulson was complaining about. He got the job done, didn't he? He knew better then to comment.

Brown Eyes shifted in her seat nervously. "I.. don't know what you're talking about."

"Okay." Grant cut her off, unimpressed by her attempt at lying to them. "There are two ways we can do this."

Hey eyebrows shot up, amused as she leaned towards him. "Oh? Is one of them the _easy way_?" She taunted.

Grant felt another tug of annoyance, there was something about her that was bugging him, and he was _one hundred percent_ sure it had to do with the fact that she was a member of the Rising Tide. He couldn't help but confirm to her coldly, "No."

Her shoulders sagged, her fake bravado releasing from her in a shaky breath. Grant felt accomplished that she was beginning to realize how much trouble she's gotten herself into. Now that he's got her attention, he pressed his hands against the table, towering over her as he asked,

"What's your name?"

"..Skye." She was reluctant to answer. Her gaze met his submissively, and Grant felt the word spike through him like he'd just taken a shot of whiskey.

No, that's not right. He could feel it aching in his bones. Burning.

"What's your real name?" Agent Ward snapped, and the 'hacktivist' narrowed her eyes at him, now glaring daggers. However, there was no hiding the confusion on her face at his question. Grant froze as both the hostage and Coulson looled at him, the hostage with confusion, and Coulson with a tight lipped smile that Grant knew meant he was going to get a long 'talking to'.

Still, there was no denying it.

The name on the tip of his tongue.

 _'Daisy_.'

Grant swallowed deeply as he pushed away from the table, lips curled in a frown. He hasn't thought of that name in at least twelve years.

"What do you know about Centipede?" Agent Ward asked Skye, exhausted after spending the past few minutes going in circles trying to interrogate her. During this short time, he's come to realize that she is completely harmless, all talk with little to no bite. Still, this girl has intel that even he was unaware of, so she couldn't be as harmless as he would think.

"Centipede." Skye sighed as she stood up from the chair, finally feeling comfortable since both of her captors were sitting down as well. She began to pace around the cell, "There was chatter on the web, and then.." She looked at Coulson and shook her head. "It was gone. I traced the access point back to that building you kidnapped me-"

"What were you after?" Agent Ward said, and Skye snapped her head to him with a glare, because he had the nerve to assume _she_ was after something.

" _The truth_. What are you after?"

"World peace." He bit dryly. Grant was grinding his teeth together, and he knew he was letting the girl work him up once again, but there was something about that snooty look on her face that said she knew everything he's ever wanted, and he wanted to wipe it off. He wanted to do something.

He stood up from his seat. "You _pseudo_ - _anarchist_ ," Grant insulted as he slowly approached her, " _Hacker types_ , love to stir things up."

Skye rose her eyebrows and crossed her arms against her chest, having the nerve to smirk at him as if saying quietly, _'Oh really? Please, do go on.'_ She looked like she was trying to challenge him. Grant didn't even realize how close he was to her now. "But you're never around for the fallout. People keep secrets for a reason, _Skye."_

And really, when did he get so close? He was towering over her, practically speaking through gritted teeth as he had to refrain himself from reaching out and... doig what? Wringing her neck? Touching her skin?

She jabbed him in the chest with her finger, and Grant took a step back, catching his breath.

' _What the hell am I doing?_ ' He was getting worked up over nothing.

"Well just because your 'reasonable', and.." Skye jabbed him again so he would take another step back out of her personal bubble. Agent Ward flinched at her touch, looking down at her hand with a confused look on his face, and Skye found herself distracted. "..firm.. Doesn't mean you're not an _evil_ , _faceless_ government _tool bag_."

Grant threw his head back in frustration, and he was nearly _begging_ the girl to confess. "Just give us your guys name!"

"He's not my guy!" Skye said, just as frustratedly, because this blacksuit _agent_ was probably the most stiff, stick-up-his-ass guy she's ever met.

"You understand he's in danger?" Coulson cut in, since the conversation finally turned baçk to 'the guy',and not more banter between the two. He sat back quietly as he watched his agent interact with the girl.

Agent Ward was better then this. Yet for some reason, he was letting this girl get under his skin. It would make sense, Coulson was aware of Ward's interaction with the Rising Tide, but he thought the specialist would be able to tamper down his personal feelings.

This girl was an asset, and it was like he was doing his best to piss her off.

"Then let me talk to him!" Skye said, turning to Coulson. "Me! Not the.. _T1000_ here," She said, gesturing towards the robo-man next to her.

Grant let out a knowing huff, "You want to be alone with him. Of course." before turning his attention to Coulson as well. "She's a _groupie_. All this, 'hacking into SHIELD', 'tracking powers'? She might as well be one of those sweaty cosplay girls crowding around Stark tower-"

Coulson abruptly stood up from his seat and walked towards the door while Skye let out an unamused squeak,

"What-? I would n-? Nn- it was one time."

Coulson slammed the door open, before gesturing calmly outside and glancing at his Agent.

"Ward."

Grant sighed as he followed him out, sliding the door shut behind them.

It felt good to be out of that cramped cell, the way she was _looking_ at him was _suffocating_ , he didn't realize how tense he was until he let out a shaky breath.

"Is it the girl?" Coulson asked him simply, and Grant's gaze snapped to the agent's back as Coulson led them through the Bus. He was worried that Coulson noticed his unease. He couldn't explain the feeling, but he thought he'd done a pretty good job hiding it back in the cell.

"Sir?" Ward asked, nervous.

"Or is it the assignment? Are you so anxious to get out of this, that you would deliberately blow an interrogation?" Coulson asked calmly, glancing behind his shoulder to raise an eyebrow at Grant, before facing forward once again.

Ward swallowed. _Coulson didn't notice._ He just thought he was bad at his job. Grant wasn't sure why it was that he was so nervous. Coulson stopped at a locker and punched in his code.

"Sir, just give me a minute alone with her," Grant pleaded through gritted teeth. All he needed was one minute, unsupervised, and he would _really_ make her talk. The girl seemed easy enough to frighten.

It was as if Coulson could read his mind, "She's an _asset_."

"She is such an a- asset?"

The agent was calm as he moved some things around in the locker, pulling out a dangerous looking syringe that was already loaded with some green kind of, _hopefully_ , poison. Grant looked at the device with an approving nod as if satisfied he finally brought out the big guns.

Coulson smirked at the specialist.

"Look, Agent Ward. We don't know anything about this girl. Do you understand how rare that is? We have an opportunity here, and I'm gonna take it." He squeezed the syringe gently, and some of the green liquid squirted out.

Grant smirked, shoving his hands into his pockets as he examined the syringe. Maybe it had some type of acidic that burned when it entered the blood system. He could work with that. She'd last _maybe_ twenty five seconds, half a minute _tops_. Then they could give her the antidote once she started talking. Cause that's what she is, _all talk._

He was starting to understand why Garrett and Phil were such good, old buddies.

 _(If they were really such good friends, Coulson would share the secret on how he managed to come back to life._ Secrets _don't keep friends.)_

When the two were heading back towards the holding cell, Grant could help but ask Coulson, "But what are we going to do about the antidote, sir?"

Agent Coulson simply raised his eyebrow, making an amused face. "Hm?" He answered vaguely.

Grant shrugged his shoulders. Maybe the poison didn't have long lasting effects, thus needing no antidote. All the better.

Right?

"This, is QNB216." Coulson pulled the green vile out of the syringe, twisting it around between his finger tips so that Skye could get a better view of it.

Grant watched as she flinched in her chair, frightened at the sight of the syringe, and it was hard for him to remember why it was that she made him feel so...? Worked up? He was twitchy, and it made him agitated, and now she was scared, and he could actually _feel_ her fear.

Grant began to pace the cell, rubbing anxiously at his neck. Why wouldn't she talk? He could _make_ her talk. And then they could just throw her in _jail_. Put her on probation. _Get rid of her._

But she wouldn't talk. He could feel it, he just _knew_. And he could see it in her pretty little brown eyes, those honeyed hues blinking up at him with ignorance, completely unaware of what he is capable of. Of the things he's _done_ to make people like her talk.

"It's a top-shelf martini of sodium-pentothal derivatives. Now, I don't have much, but in this case, I think you're worth cracking it open."

Skye sucked in a shaky breath of air, but maintained her cool. Grant approached Coulson, digging his fingers into the desk that the hostage was sitting in.

"It'll hurt," Grant promised her darkly, and the way her eyes flickered between him and Coulson, he just knew. He knew that he managed to break her, and he was relieved, because he really didn't want to hurt her.

 _(_ Why _didn't he want to hurt her? She was a liability, he didn't owe her anything. He didn't know_ Skye _. He didn't_ know Skye _._

 _She wasn't Daisy. He didn't have a Daisy anymore.)_

Coulson smirked, before plunging the syringe into Agent Ward's chest. "Did that hurt?"

He then smiled sheepishly at Skye, pointing his thumb awkwardly at the agent who was tearing the syringe out from his chest, explaining to her vaguely. "It's truth serum."

Skye watched as the cranky man in a suit grunted in pain as he pressed him palm against the spot where the bald one in a suit shot him. Ward could already feel the _drug_ , the fucking _truth serum_ 's, poison working it's way into his system.

"Have you lost your mind? You should never do that, to a member of your team." Grant gritted his teeth together in pain, "And yes. It did hurt a little bit, but I try to mask my pain away in front of beautiful women because it makes me seem more masculine- My God." Ward needed to take a seat, and he slouched down in the chair across from Skye. He placed his head in his palm. "This stuff works fast."

Skye's jaw was still dropped open from shock, and did he say beautiful? Okay, she could work with that. Woo. Go truth serum.

 _Truth serum actually exists?_

"Don't trust us?" Coulson asked, backing away towards the door. Skye finally managed to regain her composure when Coulson met her eye with a knowingful smirk, sliding the door open. "Ask him whatever you'd like."

Grant's head snapped up once he realized Coulson was abandoning him. While he was _like this_.

Truth serum in his blood.

With _her_.

 _(Garrett never trained him for a situation like this.)_

"This is definitely not protocol!" The agent snapped when his superior left the cell.

Skye was smirking. The agent across from her was nervous, to say in the least. Now that he had truth serum running in his blood, he was literally an open book. How cool was that? Skye waited until he met her gaze before she slowly tugged her jacket off, revealing her long sleeved v-neck shirt.

His gaze dropped to her breasts. He licked his lips nervously before darting his gaze back to her eyes, and Skye resisted the urge to laugh in his face. _Men_!

"You seem nervous," She observed in a husky voice, hanging her jacket on the back of her chair. "You were pretty confident about a minute ago. What's the matter?" Skye leaned forward, inching closer to him. "Something on your mind?"

The agent recoiled back, shifting in his chair tense as he remained strictly PG eye contact with her. "I-I'm calling to mind my training."

"Aw, we don't have to do that, now." Skye said gently, leaning back in her chair with a demure pout. She knew exactly how to work men, and this man currently couldn't hide anything from her.

Skye was determined not to let the fact that he was a super scary toolbag from a faceless government that lurks in the shadows with years of training, outweigh the fact that she was _hot_ , he was on _truth serum_ , and she was going to make him _open up like a walnut_ once she was through with him.

"Why don't we start with your name?" Skye asked sweetly.

"Why don't we start with _yours_?" Grant deflected easily. He wasn't sure if it was the truth serum, or that feeling in his gut, but he just wanted to _know_.

She frowned at his response, and Grant didn't miss the tight curl of her lips. "You're not answering my question. And I told you my name already. It's Skye."

"Grant," His name slipped through clench teeth. He groaned, closing his eyes when he realized that he gave her his first name hoping for some sort of reaction. Like a flash of recognition in her sweet eyes, or a clench of her fists to show that she knew his name as well. That she was marked, just as he was. As he once had been. _Daisy_.

Skye didn't seemed fazed in the least. She lifted an eyebrow at him, chin resting in her palm as she looked at him boredly. "Grant...?" Skye pressed him.

He sighed in defeat, "Ward."

"Well, Grant Ward!" Skye said cheerfully, glad to know the identity of the man who bagged and kidnapped her. She stood up from her seat and approached him slowly. "That wasn't so hard now.. was it?" The look on her face was enough to have him clenching his fingers into his chair. She knew what she was doing to him, and he hated being in this position where he couldn't mask his feelings. It was a weak doze of truth serum, but he was already having a hard enough time not getting worked up around her before he was drugged. And now.. well, now him and Coulson were going to have a very _long_ conversation when this was over.

"There is _no way_.." Grant cleared his throat as she approached, folding his hands on the table and avoiding her gaze as he said determinedly, "..I'm going to reveal _classified information.._ to a girl who's hellbent on taking us down."

He could tell by the smug little look on her face, she thought she could get what she wanted from him. He was stronger then that, stronger then a little dose of truth serum to leak secret intel to a girl who was definitely going to _blog it_ out to the _public_ as soon as she was done with him.

He didn't expect her to place a gentle hand on his shoulder. He could feel her warmth through his suit, and he clenched his hands together tighter on the table.

Her hair brushed against his ear as she asked him in a gentle tone, "Have you ever killed somebody before?"

His response was immediate, toes curling in his shoes at the sound of her voice, so close.

 _So familiar._

"Yes," He released in a panted breath that came out completely on it's own accord. "A few.." Ward clenched his eyes shut, realizing how _responsive_ the truth serum was making him. He clenched his teeth together, speaking in a strained voice. "..high risked.. targets. But they were terrible people.. who were trying to murder _nice_ people, and I didn't feel very _good_ afterwards."

Skye took a step back, and Grant didn't need to look at her face to see the disgust that was there.

Has he mentioned he _hated_ truth serum? He could literally feel her withdrawing from him, and Ward frowned at the loss. Fortunately, Skye took a seat on top of the desk next to him, and she was close enough where he could still feel her heat. But she wasn't reaching for him anymore.

There was a slight lull where Skye was looking at the walls and Grant was glaring at his hands. He glanced up at her, and Skye leaned back on the desk casually, as if she were having a normal chat with an old friend. "So if you felt bad, then why did you do it?"

"Because they were _bad people, **Skye**._ " He growled out the name that she gave him. He stood up from his seat. He didn't know what game she was trying to pull, but if she wasn't interested in S.H.I.E.L.D. intel, then he wasn't sure what it was that she wanted. "And someone needs to _stop_ those _bad people,_ _Skye_ , and that's what I'm for. To protect people like _you_ , who are able to sit behind their _computers_ where it's _safe_ , causing a mess, so people like _me_ have to clean everything up."

"It sounds like you're trying to tell me you're the good guy."

"That's because _I am_!" Grant hissed down at her.

Skye hopped down from the desk, and she barely reached his shoulders, but that didn't stop her from looking up, up, up at him from underneath thick, dark eyelashes. Her hands were balled into fists at her sides as she replied back to him with equal the determination,

"Then _start acting like it_!"

Grant paused.

 _She was still scared of him._

He didn't know how he could tell, but he just did. It wasn't in her eyes, because she was looking at him with a heated expression that matched his own.

It was as though there was a shift in the air, a pluck of a note that suddenly rang through his mind, down his spine, and Grant faltered just the slightest bit. Skye lifted an eyebrow as he backed down. Agent Ward slouched into his chair, hands folded on the table top calmly.

Clearly, whatever it was that Coulson had in mind, it wasn't anything that involved frightening their.. _asset_. Grant figured his best move would be to play nice.

"Alright. Ask me whatever you like."

Skye leaned towards him once again, "Does your grandmother know what you do in your free time, Agent Ward?"

Grant gulped. "Gramsy?"


	2. Chapter 2

The after effects of the truth serum (even with just a small dose) was still enough enough to knock Agent Ward out for _three_ hours. It might of been the strain he put on his body from resisting the extremely potent drug, but it wore him out.

(And when Coulson found him in the cell room face-down on the desk drooling in his sleep, he couldn't help but snicker at the young specialist's predicament.)

Apparently, Skye and Coulson got along swimmingly, because she gave him their target, Mike Peterson's, name. They went after him immediately.

By the time Grant regained his consciousness, Agent Coulson was informing him that their _asset_ was being held _hostage_. Another after effect of the truth serum was that it left Ward disoriented, and upon the first few minutes of his consciousness, Grant was stumbling around the bus in a drunken hurry as he strapped on his tactical gear.

(He might of admitted to Coulson that he wished he'd stayed in Tahiti. By the time Grant sobered up, Agent May and Agent Coulson were watching him with amused looks on their faces.

He wanted to tell them not to give him that look- a _civilian_ shouldn't of been on the field in the first place, he had _every right_ to be worried.)

Coulson didn't speak to Grant until they were on their way to rescue their _'asset'_.

"You managed to convince her to lead us to Mike Peterson. Good job."

Grant let out a grunt in response, knowing that his superior was trying to tease him. Ward released the mag on his pistol, checking over his weapons calmly.

He _also_ knew that Coulson was disappointed with the way that he handled Skye during her interrogation. Still, Ward refused to apologize. He wasn't going to forget the fact that she was a member of the _Rising Tide_. And he wasn't going to be tricked by the girl just because she was pretty.

"You should of got rid of her out the minute she stepped out of that cell." Ward told the higher ranking agent in a gruff tone.

Coulson lifted an eyebrow at the Specialist who was checking his weapons across from him. That wasn't the response that Phil had been expecting. He'd assumed there would be a lot more yelling and frowning on Grant's part, with endless complaints on how Coulson left him to fend for himself with truth serum in his systen.

But again, it was all about _the girl._

Coulson pressed his lips together with a knowing smile, "Skye knows what she's doing."

Grant snapped the mag shut, resisting the urge to scoff.

 _(She doesn't know_ anything _.)_

...

* * *

...

Coulson told Ward to only take the shot if he had to.

The minute he saw that s _uper-soldier-enhanced raging maniac_ dragging Skye by her arm- if Fitz hadn't- Ward wasn't sure-

..There was something begging him to _take that shot._

And Ward has always had a little bit of darkness inside of him, but there has always been a line that he knew better then to cross while acting as Agent Grant Ward.

Mike Peterson wasn't beyond hope, he didn't deserve to be sniped right between his eyes- but Grant _could do it right now_. There was something in him that was just _begging_ to tear the man who handled her so roughly apart.

 _Skye_.

He watched with cold eyes as she struggled against Mike through the scope of his rifle. He slowly switched his aim towards Peterson, who was digging his fingers into her shoulders and shouting at her angrily.

Fitz ( _or Simmons, whichever one it was that made the weapons- he honestly didn't know, nor care_ ) handed Ward a, what he called, 'night night' gun.

Ward quickly took the shot, knocking the target unconscious with the much less lethal weapon.

Peterson would live.

 _(But his instincts had screamed at him to protect her._

 _He wasnt sure why.)_

"Skye? That girl's not qualified to be a _Shield agent_ ," Grant said, his tone incredulous when he heard the news of what Coulson was planning for the little hacker who somehow managed to talk her way onto the bus.

"Agreed. That's why I've invited her on as a consultant. Shield does it all the time, technically Stark is a consultant." Coulson defended easily.

" _Technically_ , Skye's a member of the Rising Tide. She hacked our RSA Implementations," Grant argued. He hated the way Agent Coulson looked at him from the corner of his eye and _smirked,_ as if he knew things Grant was unaware of.

It pissed him off.

"Twice. From her van. With a laptop. Imagine what she can do with our resources?"

"I am. That is exactly what I'm imagining during this frown." Ward retorted dryly. "You brought me on for risk assessment? She's a _risk_. She doesn't think like us-"

"Exactly." Coulson cut him off with a mysterious smile. "Your frown is noted, however."

"Officially, it's an airborne mobile command station. But _we_ call it the bus. We find it best used for shorthand field missions. Everything has to be just so, you know? Because of the danger."

It was Fitz who was droning on, trying to impress the new girl while carrying all of her belongings (which, embarrassingly enough, could only fit in a normal sized box) as he lead her towards her bunk.

She didn't look too impressed, "Yeah, I've been here before. When Agent Ward threw a bag over my head. Nice guy, that one." Skye eyed the bus in wonder, now that she could see it without a blindfold over her eyes.

Simmons, the biochem scientist, let out a nervous laugh as she snagged a water bottle off of the counter top. "Oh, and we are _so, so sorry_ about that. Water?"

Skye shrugged her shoulders with indifference, not really caring as she took the bottle of water and twisted it open, taking a sip. "Thanks," She said, and she followed them up the twisted stairs and towards the bunks.

* * *

It was hard for Grant to concentrate when he was so aware of her presence on the bus.

It agitated him, but he'd long since come to terms with the fact that he would either need to play nice with the new Shield consultant, or _forever fear being drugged with truth serum when Agent Coulson wanted to prove a point._

Agent Ward knocked on the wall of her bunker, and when Skye peeked her head out to greet him warmly, he tossed the emergency pamphlet to her chest and told her coldly, "You might want to read that. This isn't like other planes."

He walked away, satisfied by the frown on her face.

 _Good. She shouldn't be here._

* * *

They had a mission at some archaeological site in Peru about an 0-8-4 sighting.

An 0-8-4 is bad enough. But Grant wasn't sure how Coulson expected him to protect two untrained scientists and a _civilian_ on the field. They were attacked by rebels, and Grant grateful that the smartest thing Coulson has done so far yet was pull the Calvary out of retirement.

He managed to pack the 0-8-4 up despite Fitz's protests, swinging the duffel bag onto the panicking scientist back and pushing him towards the entrance of the temple.

"Stay close," Ward commanded his trio of untrained agents, gripping his pistol, and rolling out of the cave first.

He took down the two rebels that were in the bushes, and there were another three heading towards them. Grant quickly shot at their kneecaps before gesturing for his team to duck back inside of the temple for shelter from the incoming bullets.

Ward paused, making sure Skye and FitzSimmons were down before pulling out a metal rod, rolling down the steps of the temple, and detonated the electric shockwave, knocking all of the rebels off of their feet. He quickly turned back to the temple and gestured for the team to follow him while the rebels were knocked down.

And _again_ , the best thing Coulson has ever done this far is bring the Calvary back in action, because Ward didn't notice the rebel at his nine o'clock.

Thankfully, Melinda May pulled up with her jeep, shielding them from the incoming spray of bullets.

Now _she_ was definitely a sight for sore eyes.

"Everybody, in, now!" Ward pulled the backseat door open before hopping in shotgun. FitzSimmons stumbled in, Fitz (or was he Simmons?) struggling to keep the 0-8-4 steady. Skye boarded in last, and May stepped on the gas to slam the door shut.

When May pulled the SUV up the ramp of the bus, she hopped out of the car and began marching over to the cockpit.

"Ramp!" May commanded to Ward before disappearing.

"Already on it," He reassured her, heading towards the controls. FitzSimmons had already hit the ground and they were crawling to the corner of the bus where they _won't_ be sprayed by incoming bullets thank you very much, and Skye was marching up the ramp like there wasn't _four loaded cars filled with trigger happy rebels_ chasing after them at this very moment.

"What are you _doing_?! Coulson is still out there!" Skye shouted at Agent Ward, horrified at the thought of leaving without Coulson.

Grant pulled the lever to the ramp, before whipping his head towards Skye, who was looking at him with so much _fear_ and _anger._ Grant snarled, because she had _no right_ to be angry, _she wasn't even supposed to be here_. This was _dangerous_ , and she had _no idea_ what she was doing. At least FitzSimmons had enough common sense to _hit the ground_ and _get out of the line of fire_.

Agent Ward's grip was tight as he clutched onto Skye's shoulder with bruising strength, pinning her against the wall of the bus. She was frightened at first, the impact had knocked the wind out of her, and she began to dig her fingers into the sleeves of his leather jacket, trying to break free from his grip.

"What are _you_ doing?" Grant exploded back at her, seething with anger.

Skye relaxed her arms once she realized he was _worried._

And not just about her, Skye noticed. He's been protecting her and FitzSimmon's ever since he heard the first gunshot. It was just hard for her to keep up- she wasn't prepared for this- _Coulson said her job was just to throw the public off track._

 _(A.K.A., doing the number one thing she hated most in the world.)_

"You're standing right in the line of fire!" Grant yelled at her angrily before shoving her to the floor.

Skye hit the ground hard, stunned as she watched Agent Ward load his pistol and begin to walk down the ramp, snapping at her,

"Can you just **_try_** not to get in my way, _Skye_?"

Skye watched with wide eyes as Ward headed down the ramp. She heard the sound of two cars pulling up, and then there were gunshots before some more cars came screeching to a halt. She felt her heart tug, because she could _hear_ the soldiers footsteps crunching as they approached the bus. They were going to board and any minute and the only defense they had was Ward and she didn't even know how to fire a _gun_ -

(This was happening. _This was really happening._

And to think that just ten hours ago, the most exciting thing that's ever happened to her was finding out that _truth serum_ was a real thing.)

She crawled closer to FitzSimmons, who were just as frightened as she was.

And she was in the way. Ward saved her life, and he told her she was _in the way_. Like it was _her_ fault that she's a normal person who can't keep their cool when they hear the sound of a _gunshots._ Like it's her fault she was- she was _scared._

But he was right though, Skye realized as Agent Ward returned back up the ramp with Coulson and his guest.

She _was_ in the way.

"I gotta say it," Skye announced breathlessly as Coulson's friend and her soldiers boarded the bus. "I miss my van."

...

The team was sullen to say in the least. The mood was tense throughout the bus, and Ward was sitting at the bar reading one of the books Garrett gave him for his downtime. It was hard to concentrate on Matterhorn's tale of fighting your way to freedom when he could _feel her_. She was here, on the plane.

Grant let out his third sigh in the past hour, flipping the page of his book as he sipped his second (single) shot of whiskey. He usually didn't drink this much, especially not when there were _armed soldiers who are clearly hiding something_ in his vincinity.

But Grant could _feel_ her in her bunk, _moping_ , probably upset with how roughly he treated her earlier. Okay, _definitely_ upset with him.

He just hoped this was an eye-opener for her to realize that this wasn't fun and games. She didn't belong _here_ , at _Shield_ , on _the bus_ , hanging with _Coulson_.

She needed to pack her bags, get back in her van, and _leave_.

Ward finished his shot of whiskey.

He didn't even want to _think_ about the reasons why he felt this strongly for her. He wasn't going to even entertain the thought.

Grant could feel her approaching before she'd even left her bunker.

What he wasn't expecting, however, was the bottle of Peruvian whiskey she must of somehow snagged. It appears he wasn't the only one drinking tonight. Skye propped her shoulder against the wall, smiling at him as she wiggled her bottle of liquor at him suggestively.

"Hunger Games?" She assumed, nodding her head towards his book.

"Matterhorn," Grant corrected dryly, not expecting her to be familiar with the story. "It's one of the hundreds of books my SO gave me that I'm.. just getting around to." He explained, not lifting his gaze from his spot in the story.

It was strange, having her stare at him like that. So oblivious to how she affected him.

Wide, brown, inviting eyes. Just begging for his approval.

She looked confused, as if everything that just came out of his mouth threw her off. Grant's eyebrow raised even higher as he held his place in his book, finally giving Skye his attention.

"S.O? Supervising Officer?"

"Riiight.." She said, and he _swears_ he could almost _feel_ her embarrassment as she shifted nervously on the balls of her feet. "Hackers have their own lingo, ya know?" She said, clearing her throat defensively. "A-hem. No worries though. I'll pick up yours too. I feel like you and me? _Wrong foot._ "

Grant snorted, because he considered being drugged and forced to answer ridiculous fucking questions ("Do you treat all women that you find beautiful women this way, or am I just the lucky duck?") as much more than getting off on the wrong foot.

Not waiting for an invitation, because Skye was pretty sure it wasn't hard wired into the T1000's system to invite a girl for a drink, she made her way over to Agent Ward and sat in the stool right next to him. He sucked in a sharp breath of air from his nose, hoping his discomfort to their close proximity wasn't noticeable.

If Skye noticed Agent Ward's unease, she did a good job at ignoring it, and Skye threw back her shot of whiskey without a care in the world. Grant brought his glass to his mouth, wetting his lips with the whiskey as he pretended to take a sip, before setting the glass back down.

Grant shot Skye a skeptical look as she already started pouring herself another shot. "Been at it for a while now?"

"Oh, not as long as whatever you're thinking." Skye rolled her eyes as she settled in the seat next to him. He was such a stiff ass, but he _did_ save her life. He saved hers, and FitzSimmon's lives. She didn't want him to be angry with her. "I just figured you'd be drinking, too. Thought, why not throw em back together?"

Grant paused, glancing at Skye with an unamused look on his face.

"You _figured_ I'd be drinking?"

He never drank on the job. He hasn't in a while, but tonight he needed something to rid his head of the irrational thoughts that kept popping into his mind.

Skye shrugged her shoulders and admitted to Agent Ward bashfully, "Because of me?"

This made Grant freeze. His gaze slipped towards the two foreign soldiers who were playing checkers, still nursing the same double shot of whiskey they've been drinking since they boarded the bus. They were no doubt listening, and he had no idea where Skye was going with this.

 _(Could she- could she_ feel _, like he could? How he felt for her, like he could_ feel _her emotions? Could she-?)_

"What makes you say that?" He asked slowly, his monotonous tone not revealing the sudden skip in his heartbeat.

Did she know what she was doing to him?

Did she realize that, even without the truth serum, he had the dangerous urge to open himself up to her? And urge to open for her physically, to slide her into his lap and bury his head in the crook of her neck and just give in to the-

Skye shrugged, cutting Grant from his thoughts. She swirled the ice around in her glass.

"You were right, I was all over the place today. I was just in the way. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know what Coulson wants from me, here."

The tension in Grant's shoulders relaxed.

 _(She wasn't fazed by him in the least. Not like how he was with her.)_

 _(And he was disgusted by the crash of disappointment that sunk into his gut.)_

"I don't know what Coulson wants from you, either." Grant said easily now that he had control of the conversation once again. "Frankly, I've been against this from the start."

"Oh, I have no doubt that you were, big guy." Skye muttered into her cup sarcastically as she finished half of her double shot.

She bet he _did_ just brush her off when Coulson suggested her. Because she wasn't _strong enough_ , like him. Because she wasn't _smart enough_ , like FitzSimmons.

 _(She could do important things too..!)_

Grant literally felt her disappointment crash upon him like waves against a rock. He glanced down at her while she finished her shot. She did a good job at trying to hide it, but Skye desperately craved Agent Ward's approval, and it confused him.

What could she possibly want from him?

He didn't have anything to give.

( _Garrett had made sure of that.)_

"Listen," Grant told her gently, lowering his tone so that they wouldn't be overheard by the rebel soldiers who were pretending, and failing, to keep themselves occupied.

Skye peeked up at him from underneath her eyelashes as she finished the rest of her shot.

"I was trained to be the whole solution. I work alone, I watch my own back, I get the job done. Coulson- I don't know what he's thinking at times. Throwing not only two _untrained agents_ in the field, but to bring along a _civilian_ who we know nothing about? I don't know what he expects from me, but I can't focus on getting the job done if I have to babysit at the same time."

Skye made a face, deciding to ignore the fact that he was acting like she was some kind of trouble maker just because they couldn't find any records on her.

"I think Coulson believes that we all, someway, somehow, make a good team." The hacker explained to the agent, pouring herself one last shot.

"You heard what he said earlier, Fitz is literally a rocket scientist. Jemma has four different PhD's, and you speak six different languages. Not to mention, you're like, the perfect black suit government tool bag." She batted her eyes at him playfully, fingertips tugging on his sleeve of his shirt teasingly.

Grant's gaze darted to her small fingers which pinched the short sleeves of his shirt playfully, and then back to the soldiers who have been playing the _same round of poker_ since they took refuge in the bus.

One of them looked like they were beginning to get nervous.

"Then there's me, and I'm here because-" Skye continued and then paused, clearing her throat as she remembered what Coulson told her before, _'If things go wrong, I need you to cover the incident up and throw everyone off'_. "-I can make things _go away_ , I guess."

Grant didn't miss the bitter smile that spread her lips. She shook her head, long brown hair tumbling over her shoulder as she continued, "The point is. I think he see's a little bit of potential in each of us. Like pieces of a puzzle. I think, Coulson believes, together we just _click_."

Ward took a drink of his shot for real this time- he needed it if she was going to start talking about things 'clicking'. She was so _beautiful and good._

The burn of the liquor sliding down his throat was a reminder that he _was not._ _  
_

 _(He was just pretending that he was.)_

He could feel Skye's sudden wave of panic in the air, and Ward glanced down at the brunette who noticed the bloodstain on his white shirt.

"Oh shit- did you get shot?" Skye announced loudly, voice filled with concern. She wasn't aware of their guests who were, very likely, eaves dropping on their conversation.

The urge to comfort Skye and tell her he was alright was overwhelming, it came naturally the moment he sensed her distress.

(A lot of things came naturally, the urge to comfort her, to calm her, to hold her..)

Grant tried his best to brush Skye's concern off, because honestly, he wasn't sure he'd be able to refrain from petting her hair.

"It's just skin deep," He said aggravatingly through gritted teeth.

Skye paused, noticing how tense the Agent suddenly became, and she slowly backed off with skeptical eyes.

She picked up her glass again, because he was giving her his 'hate' face and it was sort of creeping her out.

"Alright, fine." Skye tried to shrug it off, raising her glass to her lips.

(He gave her that same 'hate face' when he knocked the wind out of her and threw her to the ground on the ramp to get her out of the line of fire. Skye was just now beginning to feel the bruises from his grip.)

"That explains why you were so.. pissed off, though." The brunette mumbled to herself from behind her glass.

Grant could feel Skye's disappointment. _'He got hurt because of us. Because we were holding him back._ _'_

Again, there was the urge to comfort her, to tell her it was alright. That it wasn't her fault, it was her first time on the field, that she shouldn't of been there in the first place. _(That he would take a bullet for her anytime, no questions asked.)_

Instead, Grant straightened his posture in his chair.

"If we're going to make this work, Skye. I need for you to do exactly what I say, no questions asked. Alright?"

She was looking up at him with sparkling eyes, taking his every word to heart. _  
_

"Now Skye," Grant said slowly. "Give me the bottle."

The hacker looked up at the agent with a somewhat confused smile, raising her eyebrows at him with amusement as she handed him her Peruvian whiskey.

"Okay.. weirdo. I'm guessing you want to be bartender, then?"

Grant smirked down at Skye, and she's pretty sure that was the first time she's seen him look remotely amused. Then, suddenly, Agent Ward was pushing Skye onto the ground and smashing her Peruvian bottle over a rebel soldiers head.

Skye gasped as she watched the alcohol burst everywhere, glass shattering. Ward had the nerve to _look_ at her and actually _smirk_ , like he _didn_ 't just crack a bottle over somebody's head. Like there wasn't eight different armed soldiers on their bus, trying to take over their plane.

(How did he know they were going to turn against them?! Skye wasn't sure if she was kidding when she said Ward is an actual robot.)

He easily evaded one of the soldiers punches by stepping to the side, and using his momentum to flip the terrorist over his shoulder. There were four of them, three on their feet, one who's breath just got knocked from him.

Grant could hold them off, but he couldn't allow himself _distracted_.

Thankfully, Skye scurried underneath the table and out of the way.

Grant grabbed the rifle off of the soldier that charged at him next, breaking his nose when he shoved the butt of the gun into his face. That was two men down, though one of them was trying to get back up. A soldier grabbed him from behind, but Grant ran backwards until they collided into the wall, or was it the table? It was enough to make the soldier let go, and Grant threw his elbow back as he cracked another one in the nose.

Three down, where was that last one-?

Grant noticed it at the same time Skye let out a startled gasp. On the monitor, Fitz was being held hostage, knife to his throat. Two hands grasped his arm, and one of the soldiers yanked Skye up from the table. Grant snarled, but was tempered down by the blood that was dripping from the soldiers face from when Grant broke his nose earlier.

There was nothing else they could do but stand down.

Coulson's 'new friends' managed to knock out May while she was piloting the ship. FitzSimmons were panicking, and Ward couldn't blame them. They were _scientists_ , they weren't trained like how he and Agent May were trained. Fitz and Simmons were never taught how to handle situations under stress, how to do whatever it may tale to survive.

And then there was Skye, who had absolutely no training at all. She was the quietest of the bunch, all three of them plus an unconscious Calvary were tied up and being checked on every five minutes by a guard.

Fitz was blaming himself for getting them captured, Simmons was telling him it wasn't his fault, and Skye was staring at the ground intently. She didn't look nearly as frightened as Fitz or Simmons, but he could feel something was troubling her. The way her shoulders were hunched, eyebrows furrowed together in doubt. He could practically hear her thoughts, 'No. That won't work. I'll just get in the way.'

"Hey, it's nobodies fault," Grant said sharply to Fitz, who had just began to explain how he should of taken Kung-Fu classes. "Coulson put us on this team for a reason."

Skye glanced up from the ground, realizing that Agent Ward looking at her as he spoke. She cocked her head to the side, listening to his words.

Grant continued, hands tied behind his back so he had to scoot forward using his feet so he could get a better look at Jemma, "He believes that the four of us? Apparently, we work well together. Now, you don't need to come up with the whole solution, just bits, ideas. Pieces."

Skye was smiling by the time he finished, and she nearly lost her breath when Agent Ward returned it with a small smile of his own. She nodded her head slowly, "That's right." She agreed, the gears in her mind working as she examined the SUV in front of them. "...Like pieces of a puzzle."

They were interrupted by a loud snap, and Fitz shuddered with disgust at the sound.

" _What_ , the _hell_ was that!"

"Alright, what next?" May asked Skye in a serious tone, dropping her handcuffs to the ground. Grant smirked, confirming for Leo, " _That_ , was her wrist."

Skye's eyes sparkled once she realized that Melinda May, the woman who she saw destroy a guy with her bare fists, was asking her for a plan.

Maybe she wasn't _completely useless_ after all.

The second smartest thing Coulson has done so far was bringing Skye on board the bus as their consultant.

Only Skye could hatch up a plan so suicidal that it would actually work. And plus, it was the best thing they came up with. (Fitz's 'if I had a monkey-' ideas were not very helpful in the least) Grant couldn't help but feel a little helpless at the thought of the only thing they can come up with was to activate the 0-8-4 and blow a giant hole in the plane.

FitzSimmons and Skye were to stick together and retrieve the 0-8-4. Grant's job was to take down the soldiers, but he was quickly finding that hand-to-hand combat was a lot harder when the airplane you were riding was dropping at an alarming rate from 30,000 feet in the air.

Grant managed to knock another soldier down on his back, tying the rebel up with the seat belts on the bus's couch, before another soldier jumped on top of him. He didn't have time to check on his teammates, but by the sound of Simmons grunt and cheer, Agent Ward assumed they managed to retrieve the 0-8-4.

He took down a rebel who'd caught him in a headlock from behind, swinging him over his shoulder and slamming the soldier down on the floor. Grant panted, wiping his brow as he shot his gaze over towards FitzSimmons, who were still bungee together, but they were missing their third link.

Where the hell was Skye?

"Skye, what are you doing? We need you!" Jemma's voice was frantic when she noticed their consultant was unbuckling her belt and dropping to all fours, trying her best to crawl in the opposite direction as best as she could when everything around her was being sucked out of the plane from a 20000 drop now.

And they were only getting closer to the ground.

Yet for some reason, Skye found that she wasn't scared.

Agent Ward was fighting off the rebel soldiers by himself, protecting them because they didn't have the training to protect themselves.

But that didn't mean she needed to be completely useless.

(He was risking his life to protect her. There was no way Skye could do anything less but protect him as well.)

"You have to trust me!" Skye yelled out to Simmons, who scrunched her face in confusion and stumbled a bit from the air pressure, before climbing her way back up the bus.

The rebel soldiers were busy trying to fend off the wrath of Agent Ward. Even through all the chaos, Skye was awestruck by his _brute strength._ He was fighting to _protect_.

Grant knew what he was doing in combat, he handled each hostile swiftly. Even when the rebel soldiers came at him from behind, Grant somehow managed to gain the upper hand, disarm the rebels, flip them over his shoulder, and knock them out.

Skye sucked in a shaky breath of air as she watched him. He was so- he was _good_. At protecting them, at _keeping_ them protected.

 _He was good_.

The bus was hitting turbulence like crazy, and it was getting harder for Grant to keep his footing inside of the plane. FitzSimmons were able to keep their balance from the makeshift rope that they tied between their waists, but instead of Skye trailing behind them, there was a rebel soldier using the extra rope to start climbing after Simmons to retrieve the 0-8-4.

"Cut him loose, cut him loose!" Fitz was shouting to his partner, and Simmons was trying desperately to untie the rope from her waist, because the Rebel Soldier was climbing towards her quickly. Jemma was shouting wildly as she quickly worked at untying her belt, and when she finally threw it off, the soldier went flying towards Grant.

"Sorry Agent Ward!" FitzSimmon's called out in unison when the soldier nearly knocked Grant off his feet and sent him flying out of the giant hole in the plane right then and there.

The rebel soldier was clutching his arm, trying desperately to stay grounded on the flight. Agent Ward watched as the sleeve of his shirt was torn, the soldier was sucked out of the plane, and his grip on the seat belt he was currently holding was slipping.

Skye managed to make it to the emergency kit, cracking it open and pulling out the yellow inflatable lifeboat. She remembered briefly how the pamphlet directed how to blow the boat up, and Skye was quickly twisting the nozzle into the raft and was pumping air into it until it filled with life.

The emergency boat sprang open and flew from her grasp, covering the giant hole in the plane. Grant's grip slipped at the last second, and he was being sucked out of the plane like unwanted cargo going for a 20,000 foot drop. The boat managed to plug the hole right when Grant was about to be sucked out.

Agent Ward let out a long sigh of relief, because despite the fact that everything on the bus was officially destroyed, and all of his teammates were shaken up, they had somehow managed to survive this battle.

His head snapped up, eyes searching for Skye, because she was missing when he'd last searched for her.

She was already approaching him with a cautious look on her face. His eyes widened once he saw her- her hair was ruffled, cheeks darkened from the rush of riding on a plane that was descending about 500ft per minute. But she was _alright_ , and she was so beautiful, and she was the reason he was still alive at this very moment.

Skye was smiling down at him shyly, and _he couldn't take his gaze off of her._

Skye had her hand extended towards him to help him up, and Grant was staring at her as if he had never been offered help before. She paused, noticing his hesitation and figured he was still in shock.

"Almost lost you there.." Skye said sheepishly. She wasn't sure how she felt about the way he was looking at her. Skye faltered, thinking for a second that he wasn't going to accept her help.

Grant grabbed Skye's extended hand.

He felt as though he'd been sucker punched in ths gut.

The second their hands made contact, the feeling of relief was uncontainable. It was as if he'd spent his whole life frozen, and she was like a boiling wave of water washing over him. Washing over his senses, which had once been numb to the thought of losing her.

The fact that he _willingly_ tried to cut her from his life- her, _his soulmate._

 _(Now, he wasn't sure how he would ever be without her again.)_

He gripped her hand tightly, dark eyes locked onto her chocolate hues. Grant felt like he was struggling for air.

It _is_ her,

 _Daisy._

"Skye?" He asked breathlessly.

The sheepish smile she gave him in return nearly knocked the breath from him once again,

"I read the pamphlet." Skye explained to him, believing he was shocked because she'd managed to save them all with her quick thinking.

 _(She didn't know.)_

Upon his instinct, Grant twisted Skye's grip in his hand so he could sneak a glimpse at her soulmark without her noticing.

It was blank.

"You'd be the first," Agent Ward responded easily as Skye helped him up.

She smirked to herself, figuring that was as close to a 'thank you' from the black suit robo cop she was ever going to get for saving his life.

And for some reason, she was alright with that. I mean, he saved her life too, didn't he?

They could make a good team.

The team had to take a few seconds to come to grips with the fact that they'd just managed to escape deaths claws. Grant wasn't too shaken up, at least not because of the battle they just survived.

Agent Ward leaned over the bar, panting heavily as he tried to catch his breath.

 _She didn't know._


	3. Chapter 3

**(Chapter 2 has been edited!)**

"It looks like Skye might end up as more than just our _consultant._ "

Ward frowned to his partner specialist, May, who was icing her wounds as the two agents watched Coulson show their newest brunette asset his vintage car, Lola.

"Despite our reservation," Grant added gruffly.

"I think with a good supervising officer, and some dedicated work.. she might just survive this after all." May told Grant in an accepting tone. "She'll need someone disciplined. Someone good."

Grant nodded his head slowly, not admitting to May that he knew exactly what she meant; Skye was a _natural_. He was sure if he spent the next two weeks drilling her nonstop on defensive exercises, he would be able to have her defending herself against any lower ranking agent in no time.

There had once been a time where Grant wished that Skye would realize what it was she was getting herself into.

Now, he could only hope she would _never_ find out.

"Alright. I'll do it." Agent Ward announced after watching Skye talk to Coulson about something. Yes, this could be a good opportunity to get to try and get to know the girl who didn't even know her real name.

Grant had questions for her, but he wasn't sure how to approach. Not without making a fool of himself.

May didn't respond, and when Grant glanced up at her, he realized she was looking at him with a face he couldn't read.

He cleared his throat, "Uh, you were talking about me, right?"

May smirked.

Grant lifted an eyebrow, genuinely confused that he might of missed something important. Unfortunately, the Cavalry didn't give him an answer before walking away.

* * *

...

"Good, you're early."

Agent Ward grunted as he punched the punching bag, listening as Skye descended down the stairs one slow step at a time. The former hacktivist had a smile on her face she watched the experienced agent attacking the sandbag viciously.

She wondered if he knew what a sight he was for her at that moment. His gray t-shirt was tight across his chest and was straining against his muscles each time he threw a jab. Skye had already gotten a glimpse of what was under his clothes when Fitz let her borrow his glasses so he could win a game of cards. She certainly wasn't disappointed with what Agent Ward had to offer.

In fact, watching as sweat dripped from his forehead, and his cheeks flushed with exertion, Skye was having a hard time _not_ thinking about his sculpted body looked naked.

"Looks like I'm not the only one,"

Skye said casually, arms crossed against her chest as she strolled up to her new S.O.

He broke the news to her two days ago, Grant told Skye if she was going to be sticking around then she should at least know how to defend herself. He gave her a few days to prepare herself for their training, and it had been all Skye was looking forward to.

Grant grunted as he finally stopped his assault on the punching bag, holding it steady before grabbing the towel that was around his neck and patting his face down. The untrained hacktivist came to a stop in front of him, eyes trained on his arms as she watched his muscles flex while he wiped himself off.

"You always up this early, or are you just as excited about the first day of class as I am?" Skye questioned in a husky whisper, not even bothering to hide the fact that she was boldly checking him out.

Agent Ward paused with his towel pressed against his forehead as he stared down at Skye, unsure of how he was supposed to respond when she flirted with him so blatantly.

Grant slowly finished wiping his face down, before facing Skye with a stern look on his face.

"I'm up by five a.m, every morning. Don't flatter yourself, _rookie_."

Skye frowned, shoving her hands into the pockets of her blue sweats in a rejected manner.

"..Riiightie-o, then. Well, _Mr. Fun Machine._ What's on the lesson board for today?"

Ward trained Skye relentlessly twice a day. Once in the morning, and again in the evening.

It was frustrating for the younger hacktivist, because she wasn't used to such extensive drills that focused on her stamina and defensive skills.

Still, Skye found that Agent Ward was actually a fairly good teacher. She caught on quickly to the steps he gave her, though Grant often expressed how out of shape the former hacker was.

 _(In fact, Grant verbally voiced everything he found flawed in their newest consultant._

 _Agent Ward was a very hard man to please.)_

On their second session, Grant decided he wanted to see how much stamina Skye had to work with, so he dedicated their training to the treadmill and weights.

Skye was a surprisingly good student, at least when she wasn't flirting shamelessly with her S.O. At the moment, Agent Ward had the weak, untrained hacker trying to finish her third pull-up.

Grant observed as Skye dangled from the bar, her arms shaking as she managed to pull her self up halfway.

He could see that her arms were ready to give in from the strain, but he strongly believed she could do another two shaky pull-ups before her body gave up on her completely.

Unfortunately, Agent Ward was proven to be wrong when Skye dropped from the bar and landed on her feet, hunching over from exhaustion as she tried to catch her breath.

Skye let out a defeated groan, "Ooooh.. I can _not_ do another pull up."

"What the hell are you doing, rookie?" Grant snapped at Skye as he marched over to her, annoyed that she was giving up so easily, and not pushing herself like he knew she could.

The sweaty brunette rubbed her aching forearms as she glanced up at Ward quizzically.

"What? I don't have the upper arm strength that you do." She said defensively, patting her sweat down with her towel.

"You didn't even try!" Grant argued, annoyed by Skye's lack of commitment.

Skye was taking a drink from her water bottle, and she paused mid-gulp, looking offended by Ward's comment. "Excuse me! I've never been able to do a _single_ pull up, so the fact that I managed to do _three_ is kind of a big deal."

The S.H.I.E.L.D agent frowned at his rookies response. Skye watched as Agent Ward headed over towards the various weights that were propped against the wall. He picked an appropriate one that he figured Skye would have trouble lifting, and he marched back over to her and abruptly thrusted the dumbbell into her abdomen.

Skye grunted, letting out a painful 'oof!' as she grabbed the weights that her S.O. so graciously handed her.

" _Two and a half pull-ups,_ " Grant told Skye slowly in a serious tone, he glaring daggers down at her, "Is **_not_** a big deal."

By the third day, Skye was accustomed to Agent Ward's strict training. She honestly didn't like disappointing him, he was just _such_ a hard man to please, and there was something in Skye that wanted him to approve of her. He was _strong_ , and he's saved her _life_.

There was no denying that Skye looked up to him.

And the fact that he was undeniably attractive, _especially_ when he gave her that pinched expression of his whenever she was testing his patience. It was so easy to work him up, and it made Skye want to get a reaction out of him.

That probably didn't help the situation, _at all._

Agent Ward was showing Skye the correct positioning for her feet in order to toss someone over her shoulder. Grant was circling Skye as he examined her footing from all angles, and his rookie threw a mischievous smirk over her shoulder when she caught him checking her out.

"Enjoying the view, Officer?" She asked slyly when Grant's eyes flicked from her footing, and up her legs.

He placed his hands on her hips to hold her steady, before suddenly kicking at Skye's right foot hard enough to widen in her stance.

The smaller brunette squeaked at the impact, not expecting the sudden attack. Skye's arms reached out to grip handfuls of his black T-shirt to hold herself upright as she slipped her footing a little wider, and she snapped her head up to glare at him.

Ward was already looking down at Skye with an annoyed look in his eye.

"You _need.._ to _concentrate_." He scolded her, unimpressed by her flirting when he was trying to teach her skills that would _very well_ one day _save her life_.

"Now that you're in position, what's the next step?" He coached Skye, returning to his position standing behind her. Agent Ward wrapped his arm around her neck, as if he were holding her in a headlock.

Skye rocked back on her heel as she tried to angle her footing, unknowingly pressing her hips against his crotch.

Grant inhaled sharply through his nose.

It was difficult for him to remain unaffected by her when the _very feel_ of Skye against him was enough to get his blood pumping. Fortunately, Grant has never been the kind of man who lost his composure easily.

"I'm starting to get the idea that _you don't like me very much_ , Agent Ward." She rubbed her hips against him with the slightest motion that had Grant tightening his lock around her neck, and nearly burying his head into her long brown locks.

Grant was holding his breath, trying desperately to keep himself from rutting against her like a horny teenager.

Unbreakable will. _Unbreakable will_.

"I don't _like_ having to _repeat_ myself," Grant corrected Skye through gritted teeth, finally regaining the strength to pull his face away from her soft, long hair.

Skye was intoxicating, her small body pressed so close against him. She smelled like coconuts and mint, and it made Grant wants to brush her hair away from her shoulder and taste the sensitive, tanned skin that's tempted him since he first laid eyes on her.

"Yet you take nothing that I tell you seriously, so I find myself doing it often." Grant told her gruffly, ignoring how tempting her body felt against his, and trying his best to return focus to their excersizes.

"Hey! I'm taking this seriously," Skye argued, offended by his accusation. "And I'm grateful that you volunterred to show me the ropes. Even though you clearly have _some_ kind of problem with me." Skye said dryly, because Agent Ward has been a sourpuss since the minute he told her he would be her S.O.

If he didn't want to train her, she didnt understand why he volunterred. Skye would of been just as happy to work with Agent May, she did see uer destroy a man with her bare hands.

"Which is weird, because you've admitted to liking me... _a lot,_ when we first met." Skye lowered her voice, rolling her hips against Ward once again.

This time, he knew it was not by accident.

Grant held back his groan, instead letting his head fall back so he could stare at the ceiling, silently cursing Skye.

"In fact," Skye continued, busy focusing on making sure her footing was right so that her S.O. wouldn't have anything to complain about. "You told me I was the most _beautiful girl_ you've laid eyes on."

She sounded somewhat embarrassed, but clearly proud of this fact. Ward gritted his teeth, refraining the urge to tell her that whatever he said while on _truth serum_ , _shouldn't_ be held against him. Grant figured he would only be egging the girl on by explaining this, so he remained quiet as Skye squirmed in his hold, shifting her foot to the side so she would be able to pivot on it correctly.

Skype gently grasped his elbow which was locked around her neck, pressing her back against Ward's chest suggestively once again. This time she could feel the beginnings of a bulge in the agents pants, and she was relieved that she wasn't the only one excited by their close proximity.

"It's not something a girl just.. _forgets_ ," Skye finished, her voice husky as her fingers traced Agent Ward's arm, which was wrapped against her neck.

Grant inhaled sharply through his nose. He could feel how badly Skye lusted for him, even when she was trying her best to hide it. Grant knew how he affected his rookie, he felt the way she watched at him when he demonstrated how a completed pull-up should look, or the way her honeyed hues would glance up his arms suggestively when he joined her with lifting the weights.

She was testing his resolve, the urge to just grab her and throw her against the wall was becoming more and more tempting with each subtle shift of her hips.

To kiss her mouth shut, because everything that came out of it was enough to shake his whole world to the ground.

Grant tightened his lock around her throat, successfully resisting the urge to hump his hips into her shapely ass.

Agent Ward pressed his lips against Skye's ear and said tensely, " _Flip_."

Skye sighed as she as she was told, taking a step forward with her right foot and gripping her S.O.'s forearm tightly.

She bent forward so Grant was leaning over her back, and let out a long grunt as it took her several seconds to find the strength to throw him over her shoulder.

Finally, with a burst of energy, Skye manage to swing Grant over her shoulder and slam him down onto the mat. She let out a yell of triumph as she stepped back to examine her work.

" _That,_ never gets old," Skye said cheekily, out of breath as she looked down at Grant, who was rubbing his sore back from being tossed around all day for her training.

Agent Ward stood back up on two steady feet, giving Skye and unimpressed look.

"We need to work on using your shoulders so that you can flip quicker." Grant addressed her in a serious tone, and Skye groaned, rolling her eyes, because of _course_ he would find a flaw when she managed to do the move perfectly.

Her S.O. frowned when he saw her reaction to his critique, "Hey, that four second delay where you struggled to flip me could very well cost you your life, _Skye_."

He knew he was being hard on her. The fact that Skye managed to learn how to flip him and disarm him of his gun in a manner of four days was impressive.

But things wouldn't stay this peaceful at the bus forever, and Ward was determined to spend every second that was possible drilling these exercises into Skye's head.

She was a natural. Grant could see this. He would do all he can to make sure Skye could protect herself, because he wasn't always going to be around to do it himself.

( _And that thought made him sick._

 _...he tried not to think of it often._ )

* * *

...

"They'll never allow a Strike Force on Malta soil," Agent Coulson said as he zoomed in on a file on the screen projector.

Skye slowly entered the room, realizing that the S.H.I.E.L.D agents were having an important meeting. She propped herself against the door frame, listening as they debriefed.

"This weekend is Quinn's worldwide annual share holders gathering. We'd risk global outrage, but.."

"If we go in alone," May continued Coulson's line of thought.

He nodded his head, continuing, "Shield could disavow us. Claim ignorance, pretend that they are unaware of the op."

Agent Ward listened quietly. No one else seemed to notice the untrained field agent rookie who was listening intently to their debriefing. Grant frowned, because he could practically hear the gears in Skye's mind turning as she seemed to be hatching up some kind of plan.

"Without a man inside, it's impossible." May countered to Coulson. "Unless you're immune to pulse laser emissions?"

"If we had a monkey we could get in," Leo began, and Jemma instantly cringed and shook her head. "Fitz!" She scolded, having heard enough of his 'monkey' ideas.

"If we had a small monkey," Fitz began again, ignoring Simmons interruption. "He could slip through the sensors and disable the fences power source with his adorable little hands."

Coulson raised his eyebrow to Fitz, looking as though he were actually entertaining the idea. Skye had pulled her cell phone out and was scrolling through her old e-mails while the team tried to figure out a way to infilitrate Ian's party.

Finally reaching the message that she was looking for, Skye broke into their conversation.

"I could go in." She quipped, casually.

Agent Ward was immediately speaking over Skye, walking towards Coulson so he could distract the agent from Skye's offer. "Drop me in the hills outside of Valletta," Grant suggested to Coulson. "I'll spend a few weeks establishing a cover, gather intel and-"

"Hall doesn't have a few weeks." Coulson cut Ward off easily, walking towards Skye.

"And, let me restate," Jemma said to Grant, "Any agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. caught on Maltese soil can be shot to death with bullets. _Legally_." Simmons added the last part with a false pepped voice.

"Not me." Skye said in a bored tone, as if wondering why they were still discussing this at all when she already said she would do it. "I could go in-"

"Skye." Grant cut her off with a sharp look, because he wasn't even going to _entertain_ the idea of sending her on a solo ops when she didn't even know how to turn the _safety_ off of a _gun_. "This is serious."

"I'm being _serious_ ," Skye said, mocking his condescending tone.

It was starting to piss her off how Ward clearly had some kind of bone to pick with her. "You guys need a man who isn't an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Hello? Did you already forget you put me on this plane?" She asked, now addressing Coulson.

"This isn't something the _Rising Tide_ can _hack_ , Skye." Grant sounded exhausted, as if the last thing he wanted to do was have this conversation with her.

Fitz shook his head, dismissing Skye's offer as well. "Did you hear the part about the deadly lasers? Without a monkey-"

Skye snapped her head towards Leo, cutting him off with a scowl on her face. "You guys said you could only do this if you have a man on the inside-"

"-And you want to be that man?" Agent May was the only one who didn't dismiss Skye's offer completely.

Noticing this, Skye turned her attention to Melinda, deciding she would be the person to convince. "FitzSimmons loved that guy.. and he needs help." Skye told May firmly. "They could be torturing him- or worst." She slid two chocolate hues towards her S.O., who was watching her his signature frown. "..Making him do _strength training_."

She smirked when Ward angrily shook his head in disbelief.

"You don't have the background!" Grant tried to reason with Skye. She was _so_ \- Skye was simply too naive, believing she could just sneak into the estate and save the day. "You don't have the _clearance_ ," Grant listed angrily. "Or the _training_ , or _**experience**_! With any of this!"

She was going to get herself _hurt_ , and Grant wouldn't be there to protect her. His instincts where screaming at him at him to dismiss her from the room completely; she shouldn't have any part of this. She shouldn't be here, where she could distract him, and risk him blowing his cover.

"I know," Skye told Agent Ward in a calm tone, leveling him with an even look. She then flipped her phone so she could show him the screen. "But what I _do_ have, is an invite."

May, FitzSimmons, and Coulson all exchanged looks with one another. Grant didn't take his gaze off of Skye, who smiled up at him sheepishly.

"Well... technically it's an E-Vite."

...

"Tape up." Grant snapped at his rookie when he heard her descend down the stairs. He didn't bother looking at her as he continued to throttle the punching bag without a pause.

Skye frowned as she did as she was told, taping her hands so she wouldn't tear them open when it was her turn on the punching bag. Once she was done with taping her hands, Skye slowly walked back towards her S.O., who was still punching the sandbag relentlessly.

Upon her approach, Grant roughly caught the bag so it would stop swinging back and forth. He then snatched Skye's hands and examined her tape closely, making sure she wrapped them properly. Once he was sure it was secure, he thrusted her hands back towards her and stepped away.

Skye's frowned deepened from his rough treatment, clutching her hands to her chest as she looked at her S.O., who was clearly avoiding her gaze.

"Alright," Skye said slowly as she took Agent Ward's spot in front of the punching bag. Skye gave it a pathetic jab or two before focusing her attention on Ward. "I'm getting some strong.. _vibes_ , here. " She raised an eyebrow at Agent Ward, who was still clearly ignoring her.

"So.. if you have something to say, I think I'd rather you just.. spit it out. I don't want to have to deal with _Agent Frowny Face_ for the next four hours."

Grant glared at Skye. She swallowed, suddenly feeling nervous as she realized he was _genuinely upset_ with her.

(Well, at least he was finally making eye contact with her again.. that's a start.)

"Ten minutes." Her S.O., commanded sharply, and Skye let out a sigh as she jabbed the sandbag some more. She really didn't want to spend the next four hours of their evening session training with a pissy S.O. And judging by the way Agent Ward was gripping the punching bag tightly, he was going to keep up the silent treatment _all night._

Skye gave the bag a few more half-asses punches.

Fine, if he wasn't going to speak, she would _make_ him talk.

"I mean, I thought you guys would be thanking me, actually." Skye shrugged her shoulders casually, jabbing the bag weakly. "You needed a man apart from S.H.I.E.L.D? Here I am. What's the problem? I thought I was doing you guys a favor here."

"I'm not going to _thank you,_ for foolishly putting yourself at risk." Grant said between gritted teeth. Skye smirked, because at least he wasn't giving her the silent treatment anymore.

"I have a few tricks up my sleeve!" She tried to reason with her S.O.

Grant let out an uncharacteristic snort as he suddenly let go of the sandbag, walking away from Skye. She paused, lowering her arms as she watched Agent Ward walk away from her.

Ward shook his head, back turned to Skye as he tried to keep his composure. In all honesty, it was _overwhelmingly_ hard for Grant not to grab a hold of Skye's shoulders and literally _shake_ some sense into her. Grant wasn't sure how he was going to let Skye get off this bus without him going after her. He clenched his hands into a fist, nails digging into his palm as he tried to keep himself in check.

"You're going to get yourself _caught_. You'll leave the team hanging, and be no use to us _dead_."

Agent Ward was facing Skye again, and whatever retort she was going to snap back at him froze in her throat once she saw the look on his face.

He was _worried_ , about _her_.

Sure, he had a crappy way of showing it, but Agent Ward was worried about her safety. Skye's anger deflated a bit as she responded in a light tone, "I was invited to this party _weeks_ ago. _Before_ you broke into my home and kidnapped me, remember?"

Grant lifted an eyebrow when Skye mentioned 'breaking into her home', and she gave him an awkward shrug, not wanting to elaborate.

"So," Skye continued easily. "That means Quinn, he wanted me to come to his little party long before I had anything to do with S.H.I.E.L.D."

She noticed the frown that slipped on Agent Wards face at her information. Grant slowly returned back to the punching bag, holding it steady so it wouldn't budge at all when Skye jabbed it.

"And that's another thing, Skye. _Why you_? There are thousands of anonymous users in the Rising Tide, and yet for some reason, Quinn chose _you_. That can't be a coincidence."

Now it was Skye who took a step away from the punching bag so she could give her S.O. an incredulous look, not liking whatever it was he was trying to imply. She thought he was worried about her _safety_ , but apparently he's just worried if she was a freaking _rat_.

"Are you seriously tring to say-" Skye began, her voice raising an octave defensively. She shook her head, trying again. "Ian Quinn doesn't _know who I am_. He doesn't know if I'm a boy, or a girl, if I'm in my fourties, or If I'm even legal! All he knows about me is my _username_ ; thats the thing about us hackers, we like to remain _anonymous_." She glared at the agent, unable to believe he would suggest she was working with Quinn.

Grant didn't seem convinced in the least. "And that takes us back to my question, _why you_? Did he just see your username and say to himself, ' _I think I'm going to invite StormySkyes12 to my big evil gathering with dangerous terrorists_ -"

Skye snorted at Ward's explanation, cutting him off. "Oh! Please. Of course not. Everyone knows that StormySkyes is the best hacker other than-" She paused and shook her head dismissively. "Well, people know Stormy is the best of the best. It's not unusual for people to invite me to their events." Skye shrugged her shoulders casually, "I would of forgotten about Quinn's offer completely if I didn't hear you guys mention his name."

Agent Ward sighed, stepping away so he could go lean against the wall. He rubbed his face in frustration. Skye watched her S.O. with a frown on her face, because she didn't like seeing Ward beat himself up like this.

She slowly approached him, rubbing at her aching fists self consciously.

"Hey. I can _do_ this. _Seriously_ , you need to start having more faith in me."

"No, it's not that." Grant sighed, rubbing his face. "It's _my_ job as your S.O. to make sure you don't get yourself _killed_ while your out there on the field-"

"-No. It's _my_ job to make sure I don't get myself killed!" Skye interrupted him in a snappy tone. "It's _your_ job to make sure I know what I'm doing out there. And you're doing a pretty damned good job at it! I haven't felt this confident about my fighting skills since like, the tenth grade."

She was unwrapping the tape from her hands, because clearly Ward was going to be giving her attitude all night, and her mission was tomorrow. She decided she would rather spend her last couple of hours to herself, researching, instead of training with a grumpy S.O. who apparently didn't have any belief in her skills whatsoever.

Skye didn't even think she was going to _need_ to fight anyone on this mission, she only agreed to tonight's training session because she figured it would help ease her S.O.'s nerves about putting her in the field. Clearly that wasn't working.

"I'm sorry that all of this.. field agent ninja _super spy_ crap doesn't just.. _come naturally_ to me like it does for you." Skye told Agent Ward angrily as she continued to unwrap her fists. "But instead of telling me how I'm going to _crash and burn_ -"

Grant watched as his soulmate began to quickly unwrap the tape from her fists, upset with him. He knew she was going to run away to her bunk, but he couldn't let her just leave like this. Not if they were putting her in the field the next day.

Skye didn't notice Grant approaching her until he placed his large hand on top of her own, stopping her from taking off the tape, causing Skye to freeze.

She looked up at him with confusion in her brown eyes.

"You think.. this came _naturally_ to me?" Grant asked Skye slowly, disbelief in his voice. " _This.._ has been the hardest thing I've _ever_ had to do. You see, I've had the chance to properly train myself, Skye. I've taught myself to be _prepared to die_ at _any given moment_ while I'm on the field. Tell me, Skye. Are you prepared for that?"

Grant slowly took the tape out of her hands, and gently began to wrap her fists back up.

"No." He answered for her, "And you shouldn't _have_ to prepare yourself for those kind of risks. You're _beautiful.._ young. You can still find your soulmate, make a family for yourself. Live your life."

Skye swallowed nervously as she let her S.O. tape her hands back up. She's never had Grant speak to her so honestly before without the aid of truth serum, and it was _sort of_ beginning to make her heart race. Gross.

"O-oh. Well, you're barking up the wrong tree here, fun machine." Skye tried to brush Agent Ward off as he patted her hands once he was finished. She tried to keep her tone light, "Because I'm not so sure I've got a soulmate out there waiting for me. Don't think I got anyone, really."

Grant's heart skipped a beat. Skye began to jab at the punching bag once again, and he held it steady.

"What makes you say that?" He asked, voice remaining neutral despite the sudden spike in his pulse. Skye shrugged her shoulders with nonchalance, punching at the bag. She _really_ didn't feel like admitting to Agent Ward how her soulmark didn't form all the way. It was clear he already felt _some type_ of way about her, and she didn't want to add _pity_ to that list.

"I was born without." Skye lied simply.

(She _would have_ had someone's name, _she just knows it_ , but something went wrong. The fishing hook on her wrist was _not_ a birth mark, it formed when she hit puberty just like a soulmark would. It was meant to be someone's name at one point, but there was something wrong.

 _With her._

Something she's been searching for, for a long time.)

"What about you?" Skye asked, switching the subject with ease that she's gained from over the years of avoiding certain topics.

 _Deflect_.

Grant hesitated as he watched Skye's face, her eyes glued to the punching bag as she began to jab at it some more. He could _feel_ her sorrow washing over him on the subject, and Grant didn't have to imagine why.

The thought of never forming the mark that had kept him _sane_ when he was just a kid, the thought of never having been able to rub those five letters at night after he'd suffered a particularly bad beating from his older brother Christian. Not having a name to try and fit to a face at night when he woke up from a nightmare about his father.

( _His soulmark had once been Grant's favorite thing_.)

When he'd accidentally snap at Thomas, his younger brother knew just where to find him when he was sulking off; out in the valley, watching the sky, laying in the field of-

"I had one, once. Then I got rid of it." Grant forced himself to respond once he realized he was hesitating for too long. Skye paused from her workout, looking at him with an amused quirk of her eyebrows.

"Wait a second. You got _rid_ of it? That's very.. _Fuck the system_ , of you."

It wasn't unusual for someone to get a tattoo over their brand, or to have it surgically removed. Not nearly as many people believed in 'soulmates' or 'destiny' as there might have been back in the day. However, Skye was more used to drunken hill billies in a bar, shouting at the top of their lungs about "fuck a soul mates" and "baby we can prove destiny wrong for a night."

"That's pretty bad ass," She said, quirking an approving eyebrow at her S.O.

Grant resisted the urge to smile, failing, so he tried to cover it with a scoff.

"Please. It's not unusual for Specialists, like me, or May, or Romanoff, to remove our brands. Clearly it's the more practical choice, we wouldn't want anyone thinking they have an upper hand on us."

Grant watched as Skye jabbed at the punching bag silently for a few seconds. He could feel that there was something eating her up, but she wouldn't voice it out loud.

Skye punched the sand bag some more while Agent Ward held it steady. She made sure to raise her arms back up when they started to fall.

She knew better then to tell Grant how she really felt. That he should _appreciate_ the fact that he _knows his soulmates name_ , that he _even has a soulmate at all_. It was news to her that Agent May, and other specialists _chose_ to remove their soulmarks for their job. Skye wondered if that was a part of the job when becoming a special operative.

If you had to give up your heart as well.

( _Or did they still think about the person that they left behind?)_

Skye jabbed the punching bag, and after a moments pause, she asked boldly.

"What was her name?"

Grant froze at Skye's question. He couldn't decipher whatever it was that was running through her head. She was upset about something, and he figured he owed her the truth. Skye didn't know who she was. _Hell_ , Grant didn't know who she was. Not for sure.

 _(But deep down he did._

 _And he couldn't lie to her.)_

"Daisy." Agent Ward admitted stiffly.

The face she made in response was beautiful.

Skye scrunched her nose, resisting the urge to laugh.

" _Oh_!" Skye let out a startled sound at his answer, because the thought of her S.O. being destined to be with an innocent sounding girl named _Daisy.._ It was almost too much to bear. "Could you imagine?!" Skye giggle-snorted, and this time Agent Ward couldn't hide the affectionate smile that spread his lips as he rolled his eyes and held the punching bag tightly once again.

"Yeah, yeah. Alright rookie, ten more minutes."

Skye let out an exhausted groan as she began punching the punching bag with gusto, and the two spent the rest of their training in silence, their earlier argument forgotten.

* * *

...

Skye arrived in Malta twenty three hours later.

Her hair was curled and styled, and she was dressed in the pretty pink dress she bought herself months ago, but never had the chance to wear. Skye's always loved these anonymous events, people fawned over her through the internet because of her reputation, without even knowing who she was! And then, on the off chance she did attend one of these gatherings, the members are always so astounded to see that StomrySkies12 is _not_ an overweight acne prone teen with entirely too much time on his hands. No, instead she was a homeless hot girl who could steal your identity within seconds, without you even noticing.

Skye took a cup of champagne from the passing waiter, sipping on it so she could hide her lips as she spoke into her comm.

"The eagle has landed. And the eagle is _rocking_ these shoes- thanks Jemma.

Back on the bus, Fitz gave a confused look to his partner, "The- what?"

Meanwhile, Jemma leaned closer towards the microphone and responded easily, "Oh! No problem Skye, you're putting them to better use then up in my bunk-"

"Girls." May's voice cut through the comm, and she gave Simmons a sharp look. "Focus."

"Right." Skye reminded herself, moseying through the crowd as the comms went dead.

The guests had the option to hang a name tag over their neck with their username if they wanted, since the party was private. Skye was glad to see she wasn't the only one who opted not to.

She was approached by a girl with the username ' _PondLake3_ ' around her neck, and she was looking at Skye as though they were the bestest of buddies. It made sense, since they were all members of the Rising Tide, a community Skye once took comfort in.

Now, she couldn't help but realize how easily she was betraying them all.

"Hey there, Anon!" PondLake3 said cheerfully as she handed Skye a random meat kebab. Skye took it without questioning the girl, and popped a piece of delicious steak into her mouth. "This must be your first time, huh? I bet I had that same exact look on my face when I went to my first event!"

Skye's eyes widened with feigned excitement as she nodded her head agreeingly, hyper-aware of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who were listening to their every word. Skye cleared her throat, "Yeah. It's a lot nicer then I expected. So, where's the man in charge?"

"Oh? You mean Quinn? He's been all over the place meeting with the members. There's rumor going about that he's offering paid internships, but he didn't mention anything to me when I met with him." PondLake pouted, blowing a stray strand of blond hair from her face. "Hey, what's your U.N. anyways?"

"Wait- Quinn's giving out _Internships_ to _Rising Tide_ members?" Skye asked, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. She repeated this, just in case Agent May hadn't heard through the comms. "Where is he getting the authorization from? He shouldn't have access to each individual members e-mail address-" Skye was thinking out loud to herself as she quickly walked away from PondLake3 in a panic.

"Skye? What's happening?"

May's voice could be heard through Skye's comm, and she scratched at her ear absently when her sharp voice sent a pain to her eardrum.

"I don't know, but I plan on finding out," She said in a confident tone, before adding lamely, "The eagle is on the move."

"The eagle? No, a monkey! Look for a mo-" She could hear Fitz's distant voice through the comms questioning Simmons.

"Fitz." May snapped through the mic. "Concentrate. And Skye, stop talking to yourself. You're going to draw unwanted attention."

"Oh, yeah." Skye muttered to herself, realizing she must look like a crazy person talking to herself.

She scanned the party with searching eyes as she looked for the man in charge. It didn't take too long to find him, he was the center of a crowd, explaining to a group of guests how much more beneficial his company was compared to any other company. Skye raised her lips to her glass so she could hide her mouth as she said, "Top dog spotted. Eagle is in pursuit."

"Skye, what are you doing?" Simmons asked, unsure of whatever the hell it was their newest consultant was trying to say.

The brunette cleared her throat, embarrassed that the spies didn't understand her spy talk. "I- I don't know. I see Quinn. I'm going in."

The comms went dead, and Skye quickly slinked her way over to the group of people right as Ian Quinn was explaining the perks of traveling within his agency, and Skye quickly broke into the conversation nodding her head daftly as if she understood what they were talking about. "Yeah- I know right?"

Four heads turned to look at her with quizzical looks, and Skye shot them an innocent smile before turning her attention to Quinn. She extended her hand out to him proudly.

Ian paused mid-sentence, looking at Skye with a confused look as he slowly shook her hand. "Uh.. hello..?"

"StormySkyes." Skye introduced herself with confidence. "12. Although I go by Stormy. Or Skye." She batted her eyelashes, waiting for his reaction.

Quinn's eyes widened once he realized who he was talking to. He took a step back with an impressed look on his face as he eyed her up and down, "Oh? _You're_ Skye? I've heard a lot about you, missy. You never RSVP'd, so we weren't exactly expecting you to show up."

Skye froze, because Ian Quinn wasn't supposed to know who she was.

"We?" She asked, unable to hide the nervous squeak in her tone.

Quinn smirked, looking over his shoulder and waving somebody over.

Skye's heart dropped to her stomach.

She brought her hand to her ear, speaking in a hushed tone while Quinn's attention was off of her, "The eagle... will be right back." Before tearing the comm out of her ear, cutting off her connection with the bus.

* * *

"Miles?" Skye asked when her ex boyfriend approached her with a shy smile on his face.

He was dressed in a black tuxedo with a pink rose in his pocket, which Skye noticed matched her dress perfectly. He was looking just as handsome as the day when she ran out on him. Skye was stuck, completely thrown off guard, while Miles eagerly engulfed her in a hug. After a hesitant pause, Skye wrapped her arms back around him.

"Skye, _wow_. I didn't think you were coming- you, you look great."

"Miles?" Skye asked, still unable to form intelligible words.

What was he doing here in Malta, with Ian Quinn, at the prime ministers estate?

"Didn't expect to see me here, huh?" He asked her with an easy smile, rubbing the back of his neck in his usual nervous tick. Skye shook her head, remembering that she was on a mission, and she should at least be _pretending_ she was happy to see him.

Skye forced a natural looking smile on her face as she immediately snapped into her acting mode. "Wow, Quinn invited you as well? You never.. used to.. attend these things.."

She trailed off, remembering how she hasn't spoken to him since she texted him an apology a year ago. A lot could change within a year. She expected him to angry with her, not open arms and shy smiles.

"Actually.. I'm uh, I'm the one who invited you, Skye."

The former hackitivist was terribly glad she tore the comms out earlier, because she was sure the startled sound she made to Mile's confession was something that Fitz would tease her about for her rest of her life.

Ian gave the ex lovers a knowing smirk. "Why don't you and Stormy Skyes take a few minutes to go and catch up with one another? You can show her the bar." Ian asked his co-worker.

Miles nodded his head in agreement, looking down at Skye with a hopeful look.

She hasn't forgotten about her mission.

Skye smiled sweetly, wrapping her arm around Miles flirtatiously. "Yeah, why don't we start with the inside of the estate?"

Time was ticking. Coulson and Ward were waiting for her to reboot the system any minute now. Miles appearance didn't change anything. She had a mission.

* * *

"You haven't changed a bit." Miles was telling Skye after he laughed at a story she'd finished sharing with him. He unlocked the door to his office, and Sky bet May and the others were just _freaking out_ about her radio silence.

Still- she couldn't- she _wouldn't_ sell Miles out to S.H.I.E.L. _D._

S.H.I.E.L.D. was still actively looking for Rising Tide members, and they would definitely have a field day when they find the man behind the whole website. Considering the lengths Agent Ward and Agent Coulson went through to find her, she couldn't let them do the same to Miles.

"I can't tell if that's a good, or a bad thing." She admitted sheepishly.

Miles sat down in his office chair, and Skye plopped in the seat on the couch acrossed from him. Miles gave Skye a soft look that she'd once been quite familiar with.

" _It's a good thing_ , Skye. _Always_ a good thing."

She shifted in her seat, uncomfortable with the affection in his tone, and the fact that she couldn't return it.

"So, rumor has it that Quinn is offering paid internships to Rising Tide members. What's up with that?" Skye switched the subject with ease, somehow managing to ask her question without sounding as objected to the idea as she felt.

Miles leaned back in his seat, oozing confidence. Skye took a moment to acknowledge, while _she_ hasn't changed a bit over the year, there was something about Miles that has _drastically_ changed. He seemed more confident, like he's finally found his place in the world. She was having a hard time figuring out what that place was.

"Well," Miles said easily. "It's actually me, who's been doing the hiring behind the scenes. Quinn's more of a peoples guy, so I give him the names, and he sends out the invites. We keep them for four months, and if we're satisfied with their work, then we put them on the team."

Skye's heart skipped a beat. She shifted in her seat closer to him, as if she'd heard him wrong.

"Wait a second- you're telling me, _you're_ the one giving out internships to Rising Tide members? Are you _kidding_ me?"

Miles chuckled at Skye's response, somehow finding her disbelief amusing. "You know, I was skeptical at first as well. But actually, people can make good money and experience with these internships-"

"-illegally," Skye cut in dryly.

"Skye, you're a member of the Rising Tide yourself. Everything you've done this far was illegal-"

"Yeah, but that's different!" She cut him off, clearly upset. "The Rising Tide, it was for the greater good. People deserved to know what's going on in the world behind the scenes- freedom of information and all that. But you, _you're_ trying to take this freedom and find a way to _market_ off of it- you're not doing this for the people anymore, Miles. You're doing this for yourself."

Skye leaned back into the couch, slowly coming to the realization of what was so different about Miles. When she'd met him- when she'd almost- almost _loved_ him, it was because he was just as screwed up as she was. The Miles now, though, he wore a tux, he kept his facial hair trimmed, his nails were manicured, and he just.. he gave off a different air around him. Skye wasn't sure if she would like the new Miles. The Miles who thought it was okay to market off of his dream of letting the world know the truth.

She opened her compact mirror, waiting for the red light to turn green, and snapped it shut with a satisfied smile.

There, the system was rebooted, and Ward and Coulson should be entering the estate any moment now.

Very first mission? Piece of cake.

"You know," Miles gave Skye his soft smile. She couldn't help the feeling of guilt that whelmed in her stomach, because he had no idea she'd just used him to help S.H.I.E.L.D. infiltrate his party. "Maybe you have changed, a bit."

Skye crossed her legs, trying to remain calm. "Oh? Please, explain."

Miles was hesitant, before shaking his head as if shaking the thought from his mind. "I've been searching, Skye." He told her gently. "I've been doing _everything_ that I can to help you find what you've been searching for."

Skye felt her blood run cold. She balled a fistful of her dress into her hands.

"I.. didn't ask you to do that, Miles." She said through gritted teeth.

He shook his head immediately, trying to brush off her rising aggravation. "No- I know! It's just, you've been searching your whole life Skye, and I've been curious myself too-"

"It's _none_ of your _business_!" She snapped, unable to hide her anger with him any longer.

The two froze at Skye's loud outburst. She instantly regretted letting herself get so worked up, because the flash of pain that spread across his face made her heart clench. Miles looked to the side, unable to meet Skye's gaze as he said gently,

"It was.. once."

The door busted open, and Ian Quinn came stomping in with at least six security guards behind him. Miles jumped out of his seat once he realized there was something wrong.

"Hey- _hey_! Quinn, what's the problem?" He asked, trying to calm the man down.

"We have a _security breach_." Ian hissed at Miles. He grabbed the gun off one of his security men and Quinn pointed the pistol to Skye. She slowly raised up from her seat, eyes glued on the gun. "And I know _just_ who has the advanced skill to do so."

Skye froze, eying the barrel of the gun. Her heart was raising; _I wish I paid more attention when Ward taught me how to disarm a man from his gun. I wish I listened to Ward when he told me things could take a wrong turn. I wish..._

"Woah!" Miles said angrily as he lunged at Quinn, abruptly forcing him to point the gun towards the ceiling.

Skye snapped out of her paralyzed fear when she heard the gun actually _go off_ and fire a shot at the roof, and that was enough to get her legs moving as she climbed over the balcony in her six inch heels and jumped.

 _Ward._

 _Help._

* * *

Coulson and Agent Ward managed to make it into the estate in just the nic of time. The barrier automatically rebooted itself, and the two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were on the move.

"Dr. Hall's down in the lab," Coulson told Ward as he tucked his pistol away into it's holster. Grant ignored him, heading in the direction of the party. Something didn't feel right.

"I'm getting Skye," He ordered, not taking no for an answer, mission be damned.

Coulson lifted a brow as he watched his, normally cold hearted specialist run off to go save their newest asset.

"Right," Coulson said to himself. "I'll just.. Handle Hall myself."

* * *

Skye left Jemma's _very cute, very expensive_ high heels behind in the pool. Her knee's were scraped from hitting the bottom from such a high angle, but Skye knew the tremor in her legs would be nothing compared to bullet holes in her back.

She was soaked, she was terrified, and for some reason the ground was trembling.

She couldn't tell if that was blood, or water dripping down her legs, and she didn't have a chance to take a quick glimpse, because there were three more security guards approaching her from out of nowhere. When Skye turned around to run in the other direction, there was another two large security guards rounding up on her, one of them grasping her elbow tightly.

"Wait- no, please-" Skye choked, terrified as he roughly dragged her away.

* * *

Grant examined as the guests of Quinn's party were quickly evacuating, his eyes straining to catch any glimpses of a hot pink dress.

His heart was racing, he's never been this nervous on a mission before, not in years. But something wasn't right, something must have gone wrong, and the only coherent thought in his mind at the moment was _Daisy_ , _Daisy_ 's scared brown eyes, her body trembling in fear. _Daisy_ injured. _Daisy_ , in pain.

It was terrifying him, and Grant hasn't felt fear like this since he's carved her name from his skin in hopes of giving up all feelings together.

He saw two armed security guards heading towards the back of the estate, and Agent Ward's eyes narrowed predatorily as he quickly followed them.

His assumptions where proven correct; the guards led him right to Skye, the girl who couldn't seem to keep herself out of trouble. He didn't have a chance to look her over, all Grant managed to notice was her soaked, terrified look, and the two guards who were holding her down.

And then, all Grant could see was red, and he elbowed the closest guard in his temple, knowing him into the pond, before he quickly flipped the second one over by their elbow.

Skye's eyes were wide as she watched Agent Ward, her _savior_ , fend off each of the men who'd been pursuing her easily. It was as if he'd heard her silently pleading for him, and Skye felt tears of joy whelm in her eyes, because she was _so sure_ she was going to be shot down just a few seconds ago, but he was here now, he was _always here_ when she needed him, and she felt safe.

 _She was so, so thankful._

When Grant finished off the last guard, it took him a few seconds to calm himself down. Daisy, she was alright. He had to suck in a shaky breath of air once he realized he could of lost her today, his soulmate, for real.

And also, because he realized how much he could never, ever let that happen.

Never.

Finally, Grant looked at Skye, and she stood a few feet away from him, frozen in her spot from fear. Grant slowly opened his arms, and that was all the invitation Skye needed before she was running, barefoot, into Grant's embrace, burying her face into his chest as she tried to catch her breath from all of her panicking.

" _Grant_.." Skye began, whispering his name thankfully.

Ward wrapped his arms around her bottom, lifting Skye up during their hug so he could look up at her face closely. Her eyelashes were wet, her face was pale, she was trembling in his arms-

Grant pressed his lips to hers. Skye let out a startled noise into the kiss, and her arms wrapped around his neck immediately as she returned his kiss without hesitation, pressing her lips hard against his own.

His eyes were clenched shut, Daisy's fingers running through his short black locks, and Ward couldn't hold back the deep groan that rumbled from his throat when he felt Skye nip his bottom lip between her teeth.

"Skye.." He said, voice torn at the edges. He silently cursed himself for being unable to control the urge to kiss her. Grant knew he was doomed now that he's gotten a taste of Skye's lips, he couldn't keep himself from her, and he wasn't sure he wanted to anymore. She fit him, like those beautiful puzzle pieces she loved so much.

He didn't care if she didn't know. Grant didn't need her to ever find out. Just knowing that she was safe, she was alive, that would be more then enough for him.

He tucked wet strands of hair behind her ear, stroking her temple affectionately. "Are you hurt?" He asked Skye in a gentle tone, watching her face closely. Skye was breathless, chest heaving for air, and her cheeks had this beautiful rosy flush that made her want to kiss her again, and again, and then again. He wanted to make her whole body flushed with red.

"No," Skye said, panting. "Because of you."

He dropped his head to her shoulder, not wanting to know how close she was to have been getting shot.

"Can you walk?"

"I think so." Her legs hurt like hell, but she couldn't expect Agent Ward to fight and carry her out.

He set Skye down, and she tried not to wince from the pressure on her legs.

"Stay close, and do everything I say, alright Skye?" He told her in a soft, but stern tone. She nodded her head silently, unable to find her voice anymore.

He grasped her hand, tugging her gently behind him. "Come on. I'm getting you out of here."

* * *

"So, Quinn tells me you invited an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. into the estate."

"I- I'm sorry, sir. I honestly didn't know she was working with S.H.I.E.L.D. They must be blackmailing her, or something."

"I don't want your apologies, son. You know where you can shove that. What I want, is intel. Now tell me everything you know about the girl."

"I- I don't know that much about her, sir."

"Clearly, you have some sort of soft spot for the girl. Is she your soulmate, son?"

Miles paused at the Clairvoyant's question, hesitant to answer. "...No, sir. Skye doesn't know who her soulmate is. Her mark never.. formed, properly."

Now there was a pause on the other line, and Miles waited for the man to speak patiently. "What about her parents?"

"She's an orphan, sir. I mean it when I say I don't know anything about her; even Skye doesn't know anything about herself. All we've managed to find is one single file, and it's been redacted by S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Alright, boy." The Clairvoyant said in a friendly tone from over the line. "Here's what we're going to do. If you slip up like this again, I'll kill you. And clearly, this girl is your weakness, so if I find out you've been in contact with the girl, I'll kill her, and then I'll kill you. Does that sound like a plan to you, Lydon?"

"...Yes, sir."

* * *

 **A/N SPOILER ALERT: MILES AND SKYE MEET UP AGAIN IN THE NEXT /**

 **(FYI I AM SO EXCITED TO WRITE SOME SIDE!LINCOLN/SKYE AND SIDE!KARA/WARD MOMENTS. ALSO, POSSESSIVE!WARD IS THE BEST!WARD. ASDFGHJKL;)br /**

 **((also, love-sick Grant makes me want to barf. u might be alright in this story, but ur a little shit in the series. dont think i forGOT DIS. :lbr /**

 **also, I have a thing for referring to Skye as 'Daisy'. Just getting yall prepped for season 3. And chapter 6 of this story. *clears throat*.)**

 **((Pleaaseee don't get upset with me for having Miles work for the Clairvoyant. D;**


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